Aflame with divine Love

Passion.  Whether it is for a special person, a valued project or a life goal – who doesn’t adore that feeling of heightened purpose and breathless, eager anticipation that we call passion? I am not talking about a mere physical reaction or emotional bond. Passion, in its spiritual sense, is the fire of inspiration and pure love for its subject.  Many go to great lengths to capture true passion. When they find it, they hope to sustain it as long as possible. But when the initial fire of one's passion seems to fade into embers, does this mean that the love and inspiration is coming to an end? Is there something we can do to fan the flame and rekindle the ardor of inspired commitment to that special something or someone we love?

The Bible offers some insight into what happens in long relationships or steady unchanging career paths when habitual patterns of thinking and acting sometimes take over. Duty replaces joyful activity, spontaneous acts of attention begin to suffocate under the daily grind, and what we once fiercely loved can become a trial of our patience and an endurance test. 

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The apostle John delivered a message to a church in Ephesus, Greece that had fallen victim to daily routine. He warned: “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and thou hast… borne and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” (Revelation 2:2-4) The way I see it, John commends the fact that they are hanging in there and plugging along. But what happened to the passion of their first love, the fervor for their purpose?

Kindly, John doesn’t leave them to flounder under the warning. He also delivers some sage advice. He says, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.”  (Revelation 2:5)  Here, passion is linked to vision, and true vision involves inspiration. When we recapture the inspiration that initiated and spurred on a good idea or relationship, we have reconnected with the eternal flame – the first love that restores joy and purpose. Furthermore, when we let our actions spring from the inspiration of a renewed vision, this can act like a fan drawing on a spark until the full blaze is restored. Find the inspiration and you find the reason for being. Express the inspiration by doing the “first works”  and you share a fresh and passionate fire with a waiting world.

During the first decade of marriage, my husband and I fell comfortably and naturally into the routine of work and family responsibilities. We had a sweet, loving relationship with mostly ups and very few downs. However, as steady and generally smooth as things were, we were still two people evolving at our own pace, with interests and activities that sometimes converged and often diverged. To a certain extent, we had let our relationship become a bit dusty. Nearing our tenth anniversary, I was longing to rediscover the fire of purpose in the relationship. This wasn’t something I felt I could discuss with my husband right away. I didn’t know if he was feeling as out of sorts as I was. I certainly didn’t want to hurt him or frighten him by exposing my thoughts too soon. So before I brought anything to his attention, I decided to pray about my marriage – and to pray for my marriage. I had always felt our relationship was a gift from God, so it seemed perfectly normal to take my questions up in prayer.

One of my issues concerned the subject of spirituality.  This was clearly a big part of my life. For him? Not so much. I was the church goer, he worked on Sundays. I was spiritually hungry - a genuine seeker. He seemed to have no spiritual curiosity whatsoever. So I asked God, “After ten years together, are we really on completely different life paths? Is there anything that we can do to bring these two different tracks together?”

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As I did some spiritual study on the subject of marriage, I came across a statement that proved to be a real wake-up message. It is in Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures – a book that really brings the Bible’s message to life. On page 90, she writes, “The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea.” 

I had been thinking that if only my husband would change, or admit to himself that he was spiritual, we could rediscover our bond. But I suddenly realized it didn’t depend on him at all. He wasn’t the one thinking he wasn’t very spiritual. I was the one! Looking carefully at that statement from Science and Health, I saw that if I admitted to myself that my husband was God’s own likeness, this would set us both free to master the infinite possibilities of our marriage!

I took up daily prayer to watch for, and be a witness to, my husband’s spirituality, and I began to notice so many of his spiritual qualities. Marriage, to me, became a full-on commitment to witnessing to the best in one another. I discovered that the passion I had been seeking was present in direct proportion to my prayers and spiritual witnessing. Our life together was once again full of joy and inspiration. I never said a word to him about this prayer and spiritual renewal, because my struggles on the subject were between me and God. But he noted that the marriage was better than ever and he was right!

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This had been a marriage formed in prayer. Many years earlier I had prayed daily to see the qualities of God expressed in a life-companion. When I met my husband, I recognized his divine qualities right away. After the marriage and over time, regular, consistent prayer for the marriage dropped off and was replaced by the general day-to-day business of the family. And the vision? The inspiration? The fire and passion? That, too, had slowly faded out as the relationship was more and more deprived of that element so essential to its formation - daily prayer. John’s advice to that Ephesus church was on the mark for me. I rediscovered my “first love” through doing the “first works” – practicing again the consistent prayer that had brought us together in the beginning.

Prayer isn’t just last minute emergency life-support. Prayer can be a permanent life-link to a passionate expression of Life, God.  If you are looking for more passion in your life, I highly recommend a daily regimen of prayer that opens you to see more of the divine expressed in and around you. The admission to yourself that you and those in your midst are God’s own likeness, can set you free to live a truly inspired life – aflame with divine Love. 

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